One issue with communicating data over a wireless network, such as a 3GPP LTE network, is latency associated with uplink access. When User Equipment (UE) has data to send, the UE may request an allocation of a resource (i.e., bandwidth) on an uplink channel for transmitting the data to an enhanced-Node B (eNB) (i.e., an LTE base station). Contention and collisions on the random access channel (RACH) as well as the overhead associated with use of the conventional RACH procedure result in lengthy delays for the UE.
Thus, there are general needs for methods of reducing latency associated with conventional uplink resource allocation requests in LTE networks. There are also general needs for an enhanced uplink control channel.